A woman with multiple sclerosis was "savagely" beaten up in her own home by a teenage neighbour intent on stealing from her handbag.

Wheelchair user Sian Thomas was lying on her bed at home in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, when drug-addled 19-year-old Kyle Solowyk talked his way in before attacking her and making off with hundreds of pounds from a handbag.

When she confronted him rifling through her belongings Solowyk punched Ms Thomas to the face, causing her to fall back onto her bed in pain.

He then picked her up and struck her on the nose before stamping on her stomach – leaving her fearing for her life, reports Wales Online.

The teenager, of Dryden Terrace, Barry, had known Ms Thomas since he was just seven years old.

Solowyk, who had a string of previous convictions, was jailed for nine years at Cardiff Crown Court.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to robbery and causing actual bodily harm after taking between £500 and £600 from her home on November 28 last year.

A judge said he had taken the cash in order to "feed your addiction to illegal drugs".

Ms Thomas, 45, said she now hoped Solowyk could get help for his problems in prison.

She said: "I don't hold a grudge against him.

"I never have – I'm not that kind of person.

"I feel sorry for him, really sorry – not because of his sentence but because of his drug-taking and behaviour and the fact he’s not going to have a life."

(Image: Wales online)

Ms Thomas, who has been using a wheelchair for the last four years, was in court to hear a judge pass sentence.

After the hearing, she said: "I wish to God he had gone and found somebody and hadn't gone down the drugs route."

Ms Thomas said she was "a survivor", but added: "Now I don't like being on my own at all.

"I am glad to get it all over with."

In a victim impact statement seen by the judge brave Ms Thomas said: "Although many individuals in my situation would never have tried to stop a thief I did because I knew who it was.

"Not once did I say his name as I believed things could escalate even further if I did.

"However I still did not expect Solowyk to attack me as viciously as he did.

"At one point seeing the amount of blood on my body, arms and clothing I thought I was going to die.

"The pain of being smashed in the face with a fist three times will never leave me.

"I am and always have been a survivor.

"I am still the same person I was before the assault, albeit battered, bruised and saddened.

"In fact I have been made even stronger and I am sure in time I will use this strength to be the happy, vibrant, caring and stubborn woman I once was."

Prosecutor Jason Howells had earlier told the court Solowyk originally claimed he wanted to use the toilet when he broke into Ms Thomas’s home.

Mr Howells added: "He was described as being agitated, bouncing on his feet and being under the influence of something.”

Solowyk went into Ms Thomas’s bathroom, where she found him searching through her towels and clothing. She tried to pull him out of the bathroom – before he started attacking his victim.

Mr Howells said: "The defendant punched Ms Thomas to the face, causing her pain and to fall on to the bed.

"He lifted her off the bed and struck her full force to the nose."

Justice: Cardiff Crown Court (Image: BPM)

She also complained Solowyk had stamped on her stomach, and she went to the University Hospital of Wales, Heath, for treatment.

The judge added: "This was something which you recognised yourself as being singularly unpleasant, when you admitted to the pre-sentence report writer that it was ‘the worst thing that someone could ever do’.

"This was a particularly horrific offence and directed towards a lady who has had appallingly bad luck in her life.

"On this occasion you went into her home and you savagely attacked her.

"This was a violent, personal robbery of a vulnerable victim in her own home, and it has to call for a severe sentence upon you, notwithstanding your age.

"This is a case which is aggravated because you targeted a victim who was obviously vulnerable and whom you knew to be vulnerable, and you decided to vent your anger – boosted as it was by the consumption of illegal drugs – and to take it out on her."

Judge Richards also warned Solowyk, who was jailed for nine years for robbery with a separate three-and-a-half year sentence for ABH to be served concurrently, that if he committed a similar crime in future he was liable to be handed an indefinite prison sentence.